THREAT TO OREL GROWS

Southland Times, Issue 24986, 24 February 1943, Page 5

THREAT TO OREL GROWS

Nazis Fight Hard To Save City

LONDON, February 22.

Although the Russians are pressing the Germans hard towards the Dnieper the biggest threat to Hitler’s shaky defence line is at present that to Orel which buttresses the junction between the northern and southern sectors of the front. The Germans have thrown in division after division to stave off the menace to Orel but the Russian tanks and infantry have pressed on and are now within 20 miles of Orel. ' Reuters’ Moscow correspondent says that an important highway which the Russians report having straddled runs from Syevsk to Kromio, 25 miles south of Orel. The city has now only one supply route by road open—namely to the west. Although there is railway communication to Bryansk the Russians either hold or command the other railways. The Germans are fighting tenaciously to hold Orel and are stubbornly defending every village and township, rushing up considerable numbers of tanks, aircraft and infantry reserves, including . many men who have recently arrived in Russia from France. The Red Army west and south-west of Kharkov is driving deeply towards Poltava and the Dnieper river where picked Germans have been thrown in to stem the advance. The Germans have employed fresh tank I reinforcements which have been badly mauled. Numbers of them are lying destroyed behind the Russian spearheads which are now 30 miles from the Dnieper. MINING CENTRES CAPTURED General Malinkovski’s forces, passing west of Rostov towards Stalino, have breached the main German defence line in the central Donetz basin . by forcing a crossing of the Mius river and capturing Bikovo. They now hold an 18-mile grip on the Mius whence they threaten the rear of Taganrog and Mariupol. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times points out that the capture of Bikovo, a notable anthracite mining centre, brings the Russians in the vicinity of a galaxy of industrial towns, several of which are within gun range. The thaw has created difficulties for both sides impeding, but not halting, the Russian advance along the whole front, although the effect is less pronounced in the Donetz basin owing to the excellent communications. German resistance at present is most successful in the thickly populated, well roaded and well railroaded Donetz basin where they are hitting back hard to escape encirclement, especially south of Kramatorskaya. The Germans have piled up tank and infantry reserves in this region in order to hold their escape gap open but General Vatoutins men are driving towards Stalino and splitting up the Germans into pockets. Berlin radio reports that the Russians have massed strong forces for an attack near Rjev. Narrow roads deep in mud, the bitterly cold rains and the persistent German counter-attacks are hindering the Russians in the Kuban but the weather is also forcing the enemy to abandon hundreds of lorries.

GERMAN ATROCITIES Moscow radio says that the Germans, when they were driven out of Khaikov, attempted to take with them able-bod-ied Russians, and shot those who resisted. The inhabitants report that during the enemy occupation an explosion occurred at the German Headquarters which killed a general. Two thousand civilians were then arrested and 250 were shot.

The Rostov City Soviet has sent a letter to M. Stalin stating that the Germans killed more than 20.000 during the occupation of the town. Besides, the Germans forcibly evacuated hundreds of civilians. During their occupation they committed terrible atrocities. They destroyed the principal buildings in Rostov, while the Rostov library, which contained 3,000,000 books, was destroyed.

The reconquest of vast Soviet territories is being followed with interest by Dutchmen in London in connection with the German plan of transferring 3,000,000 Dutchmen to southern Russia and the southern Ukraine. The German controlled Dutch Press continued to mention this re-settlement scheme up to the end of January. It is known that there were camps for Dutch workers at Dnepropetrovsk, Kiev, Nikolaev and Zhitomir.